Teaching Tuesdays Film Series: Fall 2017
The Teaching Tuesdays film series is back for its second year! This series gives us a chance to enjoy a good movie about teaching and then discuss the issues it raises in an informal atmosphere. Faculty can earn .1 PIU for attending each film and discussion, and can earn 1.0 PIU for attending five or more and completing a small capstone paper in any given quarter. All screenings for Fall 2017 are from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.. Roll ’em!
October 10: Blackboard Jungle. Dir. Richard Brooks, U.S.A., 1955. Perf. Glenn Ford, Anne Francis, Vic Morrow, and Sidney Poitier. 1 hour 41 minutes.
Blackboard Jungle starts with Bill Haley’s “Rock and Roll Around the Clock,” which is said to be the first use of a rock and rock song in a mainstream movie—and that sets the tone for the film’s raucous portrayal of teenage misfits. Glenn Ford gives his greatest performance as a teacher determined to make a difference by teaching at inner city North Manual High School. This is also the film that made Sidney Poitier a star, thanks to a riveting portrayal as one of the rebellious students. As the teacher clings to his ideals, he clashes with Poitier and the other students, including the class leader played by Vic Morrow. The issues it raises remain relevant today.
October 17: The Browning Version. Dir. Anthony Asquith, UK, 1951. Screenplay by Terence Rattigan based on his stage play. Perf. Sir Michael Redgrave. 1 hour 30 minutes.
The Browning Version may be the greatest movie ever made about teaching, featuring Sir Michael Redgrave (father of Vanessa and Lynn) giving his greatest performance. As The Criterion Collection describes it, “Redgrave portrays Andrew Crocker-Harris, an embittered, middle-aged schoolmaster who begins to feel that his life has been a failure. Diminished by poor health, a crumbling marriage, and the derision of his pupils, the once brilliant scholar is compelled to reexamine his life when a young student offers an unexpected gesture of kindness. A heartbreaking story of remorse and atonement, The Browning Version is a classic of British realism and the winner of best actor and best screenplay honors at the 1951 Cannes Film Festival.” There was a 1994 remake with Albert Finney, Matthew Modine, and Greta Scacchi, but the original is unsurpassed.
October 24: The Emperor’s Club. Dir. Michael Hoffman, U.S.A., 2002. Based on the short story “The Palace Thief” by Ethan Canin. Perf. Kevin Klein, Paul Dano, Jesse Eisenberg, Edward Herrmann, Emile Hirsch, Rob Morrow, and Harris Yulin. 1hour 49 minutes.
Kevin Kline plays a Classics professor at an elite boys’ school. Playing the students are a cast of young actors who have since established impressive careers: Paul Dano (in Oscar Best Picture nominees Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, and 12 Years a Slave, plus a stunning portrayal of Brian Wilson in Love and Mercy); Jesse Eisenberg (who played Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network and Lex Luthor in Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice); and Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild). The film raises complex questions about the ways in which teachers uphold standards, respond to academic dishonesty, and extend extra considerations to some students. Despite the elite setting, expect the issues raised and the consequences of the teacher’s actions to spark both introspection and vibrant discussion.
October 31: Footnote. Dir. Joseph Cedar, Israel, 2011. 1 hour 47 minutes.
This film presents an incisive exposé of the politics and competitiveness of academia. Eliezer Shkolnik is a Talmudic Studies professor who is about to publish a book that marks the culmination of his life’s work. He finds himself locked in a rivalry not only with another scholar, but with his own son who is a rising academic star. The awarding of Israel’s top honor for academic achievement brings the rivalries and jealousies into terrifying collision. The film is smart and sharply observed. There is dialogue that I have heard almost verbatim in college hallways!
November 7: Stand and Deliver. Dir. Ramón Menéndez, U.S.A., 1988. Perf. Edward James Olmos and Lou Diamond Phillips. 1 hour 43 minutes.
Edward James Olmos stars as real-life teacher Jaime Escalante, a mathematics instructor at East L.A.’s tough Garfield High School. Where school officials and society see losers, he sees scholars. He uses every strategy in the teacher toolbox to challenge and inspire his students to pass the Calculus Advanced Placement Test that no one else, nor even the students themselves, think they can handle. Reviewing the film in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote, “Olmos has turned himself into the complete embodiment of a hard-working, knowledge-loving public school math teacher whose greatest ambition is to see his students get ahead, and he has done this to inspiringly great effect. If ever a film made its audience want to study calculus, this is the one.” The film acknowledges the massive institutional racism that Escalante’s Latino/a students face, and yet it still manages to be inspiring.
November 14: To Be and To Have (Être et avoir). Dir. Nicolas Philibert, France, 2002. Documentary. 1 hour 44 minutes.
We end this quarter’s film series with a delightfully heartening documentary from France. This film won the Best Documentary award at the 2002 European Film Awards. “All over France, there are still examples of what are known as ‘single-class schools’ that bring together all the children of a village around one teacher, from kindergarten to the last year of primary school.” This documentary was filmed in one of them, in the heart of Auvergne. “Between isolation and opening up to the world, these eclectic little groups share everyday life, for better and for worse,” the studio says.